Response of Morus alba L. to cadmium stress with potential for restoration: physiological and microbiological perspectives

Rhizosphere bacterial communities were characterized using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Total genomic DNA was extracted from rhizosphere soil samples, and the V4 hypervariable region was amplified using primers 515F/806R and sequenced on an Illumina platform. After quality filtering and sequence denoising, amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) were obtained and taxonomically assigned against a reference database. Alpha diversity indices and community composition were subsequently analyzed to evaluate the effects of Cd treatments on rhizosphere microbial structure.